Diventare eroe. Note per una lettura antropologica di Sofocle, Aiace 646-92

The language of Ajax’third speech (Soph., Ajax 646-92) is typologically related to oracular responses and to the speeches directly uttered by gods in other Sophoclean tragedies. Each sentence is reliable to a double interpretation and human audiences are naturally incapable to decode the message. At the deep signification level, the rhêsis announces the suicide of the main character as an effective reprisal against the chiefs of the Achaean army; it also points to the tomb of the hero as the seat of his future powers. Images and themes used in the speech to substantiate this reference belong to a repertoire which is quite frequent in the extant production of Sophocles (see Oedipus at Colonus and Electra). The formal aspects (the «oracular» features) and the subject of the speech are bound together: Ajax’suicide for vengeance will establish the chthonic power of the hero to help his friends and harm his enemies.